Match ended 0-0
Match Information
Attendance: 39,000
Referee: Andrew Allan (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
The game at Dens Park was intensely interesting to the 40,000 spectators, who were kept on tenterhooks during the whole progress of the match. The enthusiasm was provoked more by the great reputation of the League leaders and the importance of the issue, as a win for Dundee would have meant that the whole aspect of the League might be changed, and Dundee thus coming into the running. Good play was certainly not a special feature, and there can be no two opinions that the stuff served up by the Rangers was not of the type associated with one of the teams that has dominated Scottish Football practically for the last twenty years. Neither did Dundee by any means excel themselves, and it was a rather woeful circumstance that during the whole ninety minutes there was only one shot that really looked like being a scoring effort, and that was early in the second half, when Fotheringham brought off a really great save from Cairns. The ball came in at terrific speed along the ground, and Fotheringham had to throw himself full length to divert it. There certainly was one other terrific drive from the toe of Troup, which many of the spectators imagined would have meant a goal for Dundee had Robb not got his hands to it, but as a matter if fact the ball, even although he had not, would have struck the outside of the net. At the same time, it was a smart piece of anticipation by Robb and a clever swerving effort of Troup. It is rather difficult to explain away the ineptitude of the Rangers’ attack generally, but it was very obvious from the start that Cunningham was completely off colour. I have seen Cunningham play frequently this year, and he always impressed me as being the finest inside forward in Scotland, but at no stage of the game yesterday did he even show the faintest traces if his splendid craftsmanship, and, above all, he repeatedly revealed a lamentable hesitancy which time and again left him standing in a perplexed attitude. There is not the slightest doubt that it was with him his supreme ‘off’’ day, and it is little wonder that Archibald did not shine either. He never got any of the characteristic Cunningham passes which meant so much to the Rangers attack. Together with the lapse of Cunningham was the absence of Alan Morton, owing to injury, and no one could for a moment reasonably state that McDiarmid was a potent force on the other wing. With Niccol, who is a fellow-townsman of the Rangers, Henderson never once got sufficiently well placed to get in a scoring shot. As a matter of fact, the whole line failed to exhibit the cohesion which has made the Rangers’ attack so dangerous. Cairns was the one bright spot of the line, but in the midst of the four mediocrities, he had no chance of doing any really distinguishing work. Dundee’s attack was full of life, but practically void of finish. The only feature about Halliday’s play was the way in which he swung the ball out to the wings, but he was not a success in regard to accepting any opportunity either made by himself or his partners. Kilpatrick flattered only to deceive, and after a brilliant touch or two at the opening he gradually faded away, while Troup, at the other side, though displaying remarkable trickery, which tickled the crowd, was not effective, and there is no doubt that he spent too much time in defensive work to give him many opportunities as outside left. In justice to Troup, it should be stated that Bird did not give his partner the assistance that the internationalist has a right to expect. Bird’s chief fault was his disposition to hang too long on the ball. Such tactics were simply hopeless against a worrying centre half like Dixon, who throughout the game showed tenacity and a wonderful knack of popping up when least expected. Dixon, along with Muirhead and McCandless, provided Dundee’s stumbling block. Muirhead for example, held Kilpatrick in the second half like a vice, whilst McCandless, after an unconvincing opening, surprised the crowd by his sterling reliability and his wonderful recovery work, aided by a remarkable turn of speed, which few at Dens Park thought him capable. Dundee’s star forward man was McLean, who was the one man to combine capacity to bewilder his opponents, and also to get a move on. The quality of Dundee’s defence was best borne out by the fact that only one shot that looked like scoring ever came the way of Fotheringham. Meikle was again a wonderful defensive man, but Willis showed the best football of the three. When he got rid of the ball, he always made an earnest endeavour to send it to a favourable position for his forwards. Raitt and Thomson were stalwarts. Like Manderson, they were cool under pressure. Indeed, the whole game, in a nutshell, resolved itself into a case of the defence overpowering the attack, with Dundee’s rear rank slightly more impressive, and also the game proved that there is no better defence in Scotland than that of the Dens Parkers. The goalless draw was a perfect reflex of the game, the termination of which came about under rather remarkable circumstances. The referee, Mr A Allan, Glasgow, had obviously mistimed the game by about five minutes, and the huge crowd were so decidedly convinced of his mistake that they did not leave the ground, although all the players had disappeared into the pavilion. The crowd though they were certain that the referee was in error, and that official evidently discovered this for himself, for in a few minutes the players reappeared to indulge in the remaining portion of the game – about three and a half minutes – which provided no particular incident
